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Old English Click Quiz

Can you guess what these Old English words mean? The modern words are the Old French words that replaced them when the Normans conquered England.
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Quiz by Dimby
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Last updated: January 8, 2023
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First submittedJanuary 8, 2023
Times taken218
Average score43.8%
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Wanderstar
Wort
Lich
Adder
Sourstuff
Wight
Weasand
Wayfare
Wantsome
Britches
Bilewit
Overgive
Sooth
Yeartide
Leech
Athel
Corpse
Creature
Doctor
Innocent
Journey
Noble
Oesophagus
Oxygen
Pants
Planet
Plant
Poor
Reality
Season
Surrender
Venom
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3 Comments
IsleAuHaulte
+3
Level 91
Jan 9, 2023
Oxygen wasn't discovered until the late 18th Century so I had to google sourstuff and it seems to be a very modern word in a made up language and used in science fiction.
Dimby
+2
Level 80
Jan 9, 2023
True, it's not a literal translation for oxygen, but rather is associated with the acidic gases that form during fermentation if oxygen is present (hence, the "sour"). The term "sour-stuff" has a much, much longer history than modern science fiction. In fact, there are books from the 1800s and early 1900s on Old English that mention the term "sour-stuff". Anyway, while they didn't know oxygen existed, they knew something was making their wine go sour!
Si2
+1
Level 66
Dec 17, 2024
What books would that be? I’d be super interested to see

Other Germanic languages have similar words, but I wasn’t able to find a reliable reference in English. OED turns up nothing in their archive, same with Google Ngrams. There’s at least one (unverified) reference from 1887, but that’s explicitly as a calque of the German “Sauerstoff,” not an example of historical usage.

Like IsleAuHaulte, I came across Poul Anderson’s “Uncleftish Beholding” short story and the Anglish wiki. But that’s not “Old English,” those are fun constructions and language experiments. Old English is a specific term for the earliest forms of English, prior to heavy contact with Norman French. An Old English example of “sourstuff/sour-stuff” would have to be from, at the latest, the 11th century.

I wouldn’t be surprised if such a word existed! You’re right, there’s very plausible reasons why it would. If you have access to those books that include it in historic citations, that would be fascinating.

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